Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Any Advance?

1800 GMT: My thanks to EA's Ali Yenidunya for covering the LiveBlog while I am in Manchester in northwest Britain. We are going to take an evening break and return early on Sunday.

1630 GMT: Algerian police and pro-government activists foiled a sixth attempt by opposition protesters to march in the capital Algiers.

1620 GMT: According to the Al Watan daily, at least 8 killed and more than 20 wounded in clashes between rebels and loyalists at Ras Lanuf.

1610 GMT: It is reported that Libyan revolutionaries shot down two helicopters in Ras Lanuf & Ben Jwad.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Peace Plans?

2230 GMT: Judges threaten to strike if Mubarak's Minister of Justice, Mamdouh Marei, is included in the new cabinet.

2215 GMT: The latest pictures taken at Roundabout 7, in Bahrain. 

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Libya Feature: A No-Fly Zone? (D'Amato)

Photo: Tiago Petinga (EPA)Military action should remain a last resort when all other options have failed. Increasing pressure on Gadhafi and his subordinates may cause some of his support to fragment, or even turn on the embattled colonel. An ill-conceived intervention can end up being far worse than taking no action at all. Any attempt by the United States to try to resolve the situation in Libya must be driven by a clearly thought-out strategy, not a response to political pressure.

Of course the Obama Administration wants to prevent bloodshed in Libya, but while a no-fly zone may seem to be a good way to do that, the devil is in the details.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Battlelines Drawn

2150 GMT: In Oman, about 200 protesters in Sohar defied a call to disperse at 6 p.m., reamining at the Globe Roundabout until late evening.

The number of protesters was sharply down from Monday, when nearly 2000 gathered. Six protesters were reportedly killed this weekend by the security forces.

2145 GMT: Associated Press is reporting that security forces killed two demonstrators when they fired tear gas at 100s of anti-government protesters in Sadr in southern Yemen.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: While We Were Watching Tripoli....

2200 GMT: We are going to take an overnight break. Coverage continues on our Live Feed from Al Jazeera English.

2150 GMT: The scene in Tahrir Square in Cairo tonight, where an activist claims 5000 protesters are gathered:

2040 GMT: The US has blocked $30 billion in assets of the Libyan Government since President Obama's executive order late Friday night imposing unilateral sanctions against Muammar Qaddafi and his family. This is the largest amount of foreign assets ever seized in applications of sanctions by the US.

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Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Waiting

Video from today has now been moved to our separate entry, "Latest Libya (and Beyond) Video: Fighting the Mercenaries".

2230 GMT: Images from today's protest in Bahrain, in which thousands called for the release of detainees:

2015 GMT: A 25-year-old man has died in Bordj Bou Arreridj, 240 km (148 miles) east of the Algerian capital Algiers, after setting himself on fire outside the provincial building.

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Libya Video Feature: From Qaddafi 2011 to Ceausescu 1989

Yesterday we posted the spectacle of Muammar Qaddafi's latest speech, ostensibly offered to a gathering of supporters in Tripoli's Green Square.

Sharp-eyed and long-memoried readers pointed us to another show of a leader defying an insurgency by addressing his supposedly adoring and loyal people. Romania's Nikolai Ceausescu speaks in Bucharest's Revolution Square on 21 December 1989, but the organised cheerleading eventually collapses amidst heckling and booing:

Latest Libya Video: Qaddafi's Speech in Green Square

Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: The Fighting Nears Tripoli

NOTE: Our entries on today's protests in Iraq have now been moved to a separate LiveBlog.

2330 GMT: Naval officers in Libya expressing support for the opposition:

2255 GMT: Video of protest in the Souq al-Jumaa section of Tripoli in Libya tonight. The graffiti at the end is “Tell the dogs of the regime to come to the square” and “Broadcast this Al Jazeera, you are the only [news media] that is believed":

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Libya Feature: Scenes from Tripoli (Fisk)

Up to 15,000 men, women and children besieged Tripoli's international airport last night, shouting and screaming for seats on the few airliners still prepared to fly to Muammar Gaddafi's rump state, paying Libyan police bribe after bribe to reach the ticket desks in a rain-soaked mob of hungry, desperate families. Many were trampled as Libyan security men savagely beat those who pushed their way to the front.

Among them were Gaddafi's fellow Arabs, thousands of them Egyptians, some of whom had been living at the airport for two days without food or sanitation. The place stank of faeces and urine and fear. Yet a 45-minute visit into the city for a new airline ticket to another destination is the only chance to see Gaddafi's capital if you are a "dog" of the international press.

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